Self-confessed cannibal is ruled sane by psychiatrist

A psychiatrist who evaluated Germany's self-confessed cannibal told the murder trial yesterday that Armin Meiwes was completely sane but had "emotional problems".

Heinrich Wilmer said Mr Meiwes had no self-control, and that he would not have been able to act out his fantasies without the internet.

Mr Meiwes, a 42-year-old computer expert, is accused of murdering a Berlin engineer, Bernd Brandes, 43. The pair met after Mr Meiwes advertised online for a "young, well-built man who wants to be eaten".

Dr Wilmer has interviewed the accused, who is being held in a psychiatric hospital, six times. "He is healthy in mind and body but needs therapy," the doctor told the court in Kassel.

"If the internet didn't exist then this could never have happened. He has the desires, the fantasies, we all have. But he doesn't have the self-control or the self-discipline to keep a grip on them."

Mr Meiwes admits cutting off Brandes' penis, causing him to bleed to death. He butchered the corpse and ate at least 20kg (44lb) of flesh over the next weeks.

He was arrested when police discovered Brandes' remains.

Dr Wilmer blamed Mr Meiwes's father, who abandoned the family when the boy was eight, for his emotional problems. "It was a very painful experience for him. His father drove off leaving him crying and never once looked in the mirror."

Mr Meiwes's relationships with women were short-lived and superficial, and "crushed by his domineering mother".

Dr Wilmer said the accused had strong sexual desires, but sex had not been his motive.

"Sex plays a secondary role here. The most important is sensation seeking. He is always looking for strong emotions.

"He doesn't lose his head. To all his neighbours he is polite and friendly - the nice man from the station - but the rest is a fantasy world."

He said Mr Meiwes had shown little remorse and was enjoying the attention generated by the trial. He had been "like a child waiting for Father Christmas" as the trial approached.

The defendant had told him: "I have achieved my life's ambition. I am happy and what comes next is not important."

Cannibalism is not illegal in Germany and the prosecution hopes to prove "murder for sexual gratification".

The judge read out tran scripts of explicit correspondence between the men. Using the pseudonym Frankie, Mr Meiwes wrote in an email: "I hope you will bite a piece of muscle tissue from my arm or my leg because I want to see the blood trickle from your mouth, and at the same time have an orgasm in your arse."

On discovering that they were both smokers, Brandes wrote: "Good, smoked meat lasts longer." He was worried about having his nipples bitten off and asked Mr Meiwes how he would dispose of his bones.

"Maybe you can use my skull as an ashtray," he suggested.

"I don't want there to be anything left from my ex-person."

"Don't worry," Mr Meiwes replied. "I am just interested in your flesh. I will get rid of the rest. I'll throw it into an autobahn parking lot."

Mr Meiwes's lawyer, Harald Ermel, has argued that Brandes was not murdered because he went to his death a willing participant. "Today has shown that Meiwes is not the monster he has been painted," he said after the hearing.

The verdict is expected early next year. If Mr Meiwes is cleared of murder but convicted of the lesser crime of "killing on demand" he could serve just five years in prison.